The present invention relates generally to rotary mowers used for severing standing crop material by impact action and, more particularly, to an improved mounting apparatus for rotatably mounting idler gears between the disc cutter assemblies within the transmission casing.
Disc cutterbars of the type utilizing a plurality of intermeshed gears to transfer rotational power through the transmission casing to the rotatably mounted disc cutter units typically are provided with a pair of idler gears rotatably mounted within the transmission casing between each respective disc cutter assembly. The purpose of this transmission gear configuration is to provide opposing directions of rotation for adjacent disc cutter units.
Because of the precise nature of the intermeshed transmission gears in such disc cutterbars, the location of the idler gear mounting is particularly critical. Furthermore, due to the forces imposed on the idler gear mounting deformation problems with respect to the hole through the casing are also encountered. With the current tendency to manufacture cutterbars with a low, thin profile to keep the cutting member close to the surface of the ground and minimize impedance to the flow of severed crop material over the surface of the disc cutters, a substantial mounting of the idler gears to maintain proper centers and alignment is required.